


Look, Don't Touch

by Abyssia



Category: Fire Emblem Series, Fire Emblem: Fuukasetsugetsu | Fire Emblem: Three Houses
Genre: F/M, csa mention, trauma mention
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-11-16
Updated: 2020-11-16
Packaged: 2021-03-10 01:02:54
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 910
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/27595220
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Abyssia/pseuds/Abyssia
Summary: The way he looks at her, the way his hands always seek her warmth. And yet, she cannot help but bite down the pricks of fear, even as she knows he poses her no harm.
Relationships: Hapi/Linhardt von Hevring
Kudos: 4
Collections: Hapi x Linhardt





	Look, Don't Touch

They are seated side-by-side but several inches apart. Linhardt reading a book, while Hapi sits there in her usually disaffected manner. Despite the silence, she does clearly want to be there. But when Linhardt tries to bridge the distance, she shrinks away.

"Hapi," Linhardt speaks up, lowering his book for a moment. "Your hands are shaking. Are you cold?" He reaches out a hand without thinking, hoping to warm her skin with his own. But as soon as his fingertips brush against her skin, his hand is immediately slapped away.

Linhardt pauses, his lips pressing together. He is not angry, merely observing, trying to understand.

“Please….use your words, Hapi. If you don’t, I can’t understand what’s going on in your head.” And oh, how Linhardt deeply longs to understand. He can tell that she’s been hurt, by someone, or maybe many. He can see it in the way she shrinks away from his casual closeness, how she starts when he approaches in her blind spot. And every time, he finds something that upsets her, he endeavours to never do it again. Hapi is precious, her smile is rare and fleeting. 

Hapi presses her lips together. “Look, I’m sorry.” She looks down and to the side. “That was mean, I shouldn't have slapped your hand away like that.”

“It’s fine. I know by now that you do not wish to be touched like that.”

Hapi’s brow furrows and her lips turn down into a pout. “Just because I don’t want you to touch me, doens’t mean I don’t want you…here with me.”

“It is alright, I fully understand.” Linhardt’s eyes then return to his book, but Hapi appears dissatisfied. She reaches over and puts a hand on his book and gets Linhardt to look at her. “But doesn’t it bother you? I mean…you want to, _touch_ me, don’t you?”

“Yes, obviously, on account that I have attempted to touch you multiple times,” Linhardt tilts his head to the side. “I am afraid that I do not quite know what you are getting at.”

“You want to touch me, but can’t. And you’re okay with still…being with me?”

They had ‘been’ together for quite a while now.

“You seem skeptical of this notion. I am inclined to ask why,” Linhardt closes up the book.

Hapi looks down with a small frown on her face. “I don’t know. I guess I just thought that the point of…being with someone was to be able to...touch them whenever you want I suppose.”

“That is one potential aspect,” Linhardt says, closing his book and putting it to the side. “But why would I ever want to touch you when you do not want to be touched?” Linhardt said, meeting her eyes with that usual seemingly blank gaze.

But Hapi can see the depths there. His expression isn't blank because he doens't care, but because he is being genuine, and honest. There is nothing clouding this assertion.  
Hapi doesn't have an immediate response.

“Look. That woman that captured me. She used to touch me all the time. Maybe it was medical, maybe it wasn’t. But I don’t know, I was just a kid. She also used to look at me, stare at me. Like I was some kind of doll.” She gives a heavy shudder. “But you don’t look at me like that, Linny. You look at me with this…kindness in your eyes. So I want you to keep looking at me like that. Just, don’t touch,” she says, reaching over to place a hand on his thigh.

Linhardt shudders, but not with fear as Hapi had. Instead, his body trembles with something warmer. "Is that okay? Can I touch you, even if you can't touch me in return?"

Linhardt lets out a heavy breath. "Hapi. Of course."

Hapi regards him suspiciously but has no other reason to doubt him. She considers for a few moments, watching him. And she finds, that her eyes eventually drift to Linhardt's lips.

Hapi pulls herself suddenly into Linhardt’s lap, gently pushing the book away and launching herself into a kiss. Linhardt is clearly surprised but responds quickly enough, his lips falling open. Hapi’s legs clamp around his waist and she pulls herself close, far closer than ever before, thank Linhardt had ever expected.   
Linhardt pulls back for air and manages to gasp out a few words. “Hapi—“ he fights to meet her eyes even as her lips keep searching for his. “Hapi what—“  
“Just shut up and kiss me,” she says. Her tone was seemingly listless, but Linhardt sensed a deep desperation underneath. “Hapi—!“

And now with how she has so suddenly grabbed for him, his arms still hang limp at his sides, almost helpless to respond. But he won't touch her, not without permission. He won't make her feel that way again. Even as the desire to lavish her skin with affection threatens to tear its way out of him. 

Hapi breaks the kiss for air, and keeps her eyes on him.

"Linny," she breathes, her hands balled in the collar of his shirt, and her eyes burning into his.

"Hapi?"

"I want you, to touch me someday."

Linhardt swallows thickly. "And I will do so gladly."

She doesn't respond immediately, only relaxing her grip while still not moving from his lap.

"And it's okay to wait?"

"More than okay. I am happy to."

Hapi's lips pull into the smallest of smiles.


End file.
